Exponent II's Blog, page 265

All’s Not Well in Zion

This week I had a chance to meet with my friend Melissa for lunch. Melissa stopped attending church 10 years ago. She thought her family was finally adapted to her different feelings about church, and recognized that she was living a good moral life. She shared with me that she had recently supported the “Protect LDS Children” movement on Facebook; and subsequently, the heartache she felt due to the reaction of her family. She decided to come out publicly in support of the movement after following recent events in the media and reflecting on various experiences she knows about. Most of her family continues to be actively engaged in the church and she wants to see healthy policies established that protect young people in the church such as her nieces and nephews. However, when her family saw that she had posted about the movement on facebook they took personal offense. Rather than hearing her voice as one in support of children (as she intended), they felt she was attacking the church and its good name. She felt her family wasn’t hearing what she was saying, and was assuming malintent.

 

[image error]In our church cultures, activism has become so taboo, it is fraught with misunderstanding. In an attempt to avoid evil-speaking, church members are wary to speak up against church leaders and even policies put in place by leadership. We are so sure our church is right and that those who choose to leave are wrong, that we jump to conclusions about their motivations. We forget that although Jesus was obedient to the Father, he was not obedient to the church hierarchy of his day, in fact he often spoke out against it and criticized the church leaders of his day (e.g. In the parable of the good Samaritan, the priest and Levite pass by on the other side of the road in order to keep from becoming ritually ‘unclean’ from the injured man’s blood. He is criticizing protecting the image of cleanliness when it keeps people from doing what is actually good).

 

Orthodoxy wants to protect the institution of the church from dissenting voices, rather than hear out those voices and consider whether the criticisms may be valid. I find it dangerous for the general population of the church to plug their ears or suppress their consciences and keep silent. This is not a righteous silence. Scriptures warn of the mindset “All is is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well” (2 Nephi 28:21). We would do well to remember church leaders do not always get it right, and policies that protect predators, rather than the innocent, must be changed. Is it not righteous to speak out against injustice and protect the vulnerable?

 

In the New Testament, we read that Saul was confident that he was in the right. He knew his place and knew the rules. He was hunting heretics. Then Saul hears the voice of God, becomes blinded, and his complete world view is shattered. Instead of leading the fight against heretics, he must be led in a new path. He has no idea what is coming next. He is told to go and wait. Once stripped of certainty, God can work with him. The illusion of orthodoxy is not what makes him a tool of God, but his broken heart. He let go of everything he knew and waited to be taught his new mission and how to use his voice. His new mission alienated him from the structure he used to support.

 

Our outward performances to fulfil the law are not bringing us to God. Protecting the church’s reputation rather than protecting individual members of the church, is misguided. If we are so sure our church is getting everything right, we may be missing the very thing God is giving us to show us the error of our ways and correct our path. Humility lets life turn things upside down and lets us loosen our hold on certainty, so God can finally work with us, just like Saul.

 

Relief Society Lesson Plan: “Young Women in the Work” by Bonnie L. Oscarson

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[Photo by Bruce Mars on Pexels.]

Access President Oscarson’s April 2018 General Conference talk here.

Write this quote from the talk on the board (if available) and ask for a volunteer to read it aloud:

“Every young woman in the Church should feel valued, have opportunities to serve, and feel that she has something of worth to contribute to this work.”

Ask the class to close their eyes (if they feel comfortable doing so) and think back to when they were ages 12 to 18 and what their goals and dreams were for themselves as teenagers. (Give them one to two minutes to ponder this question silently.)

Discuss their answers.

Next, ask the class to try to recall the activities they enjoyed participating in as teenagers or pre-teens, including ways they liked helping others. (Take another minute for this.)

Discuss their answers.

Read these sections from President Oscarson’s conference address:

“In Handbook 2, we learn that the work of salvation within our wards includes ‘member missionary work, convert retention, activation of less-active members, temple and family history work, and teaching the gospel.’ . . . For many years now, our presidency has been asking the question ‘Which of these areas mentioned should our young women not be involved in?’ The answer is that they have something to contribute in all areas of this work. . . . [Italics added]

“As we consider the roles that our young women will be expected to assume in the near future, we might ask ourselves what kind of experiences we could provide for them now that will help with their preparation to be missionaries, gospel scholars, leaders in the Church auxiliaries, temple workers, wives, mothers, mentors, examples, and friends.”

I would emphasize that since more than half of women in the U.S.  work outside the home—even in Utah—that these roles will likely include contributing to society in their work/career lives, which also benefits others. (See this link from United States Department of Labor’s Statistics and Data page for more info: https://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/stats_da...)

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Give the class a challenge to sit in groups of 2 to 4 people and come up with ideas for how  they could have practiced the skills necessary to prepare them to achieve their personal goals and dreams as teenagers in their wards, families, and communities while serving others. Tell them you will ask for a volunteer from each group to briefly share the group’s ideas. (Allow for about five minutes for small group discussion.)

Ask each small group leader to share her group’s ideas for how they might have learned skills as young women that helped them succeed as adults and achieve their personal goals and dreams. 

Now ask the class to narrow their focus to further elaborate specific ways the young women in their ward could be utilized to fulfill President Oscarson’s vision for them to  “feel valued, have opportunities to serve, and feel that [they have] something of worth to contribute to this work.”

If they need a jumping off point, read the following sections from the talk:

“Several months ago, I had the opportunity to test an idea with two 14-year-old young women. I obtained copies of two actual ward council agendas and gave Emma and Maggie each a copy. I asked them to read over the agendas and see if there were any action items from the ward councils in which they might be able to be of service. Emma saw that a new family was moving into the ward, and she said she could help them move in and unpack. She thought she could befriend the children in the family and show them around their new school. She saw there was a ward dinner coming up and felt there were many different ways she could offer her services.

“Maggie saw that there were several elderly people in the ward who needed visits and fellowshipping. She said she would love to visit with and be of help to these wonderful older members. She also felt she could help teach members of the ward how to set up and use social media accounts. There really wasn’t one thing on those agendas with which those two young women could not help! . . .

“Do those who sit on ward councils, or hold any calling in the ward, see the young women as valuable resources to help fill the many needs within our wards? There is usually a long list of situations that require someone to serve, and we often think only of the adults in the ward to meet those needs. Just as our Aaronic Priesthood holders have been invited to labor with their fathers and other men of the Melchizedek Priesthood, our young women can be called upon to provide service and minister to the needs of ward members with their mothers or other exemplary sisters. They are capable, eager, and willing to do so much more than merely attend church on Sundays!” [Italics added for emphasis.]

As a mental health professional, I would advise against purporting that serving others can solve or mitigate mental health issues like depression and anxiety, particularly in the context of a patriarchal religious institution that doesn’t provide young women with equal opportunities for service in their faith community. Use caution when using the following quote, or simply use the italicized section below: “To you, the young women of the Church, your teenage years can be busy and often challenging. We have noticed that many more of you are struggling with issues of self-worth, anxiety, high levels of stress, and perhaps even depression. Turning your thoughts outward, instead of dwelling on your own problems, may not resolve all of these issues, but service can often lighten your burdens and make your challenges seem less hard. One of the best ways to increase feelings of self-worth is to show, through our concern and service to others, that we have much of worth to contribute.” [Italics added]

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[Photo by Bruce Mars on Pexels.]

Conclude the lesson with this quote from President Oscarson and if so moved, bear your testimony of its truthfulness:

“[O]ur young women are amazing. They have talents, unlimited enthusiasm, and energy, and they are compassionate and caring. They want to be of service. They need to know they are valued and essential in the work of salvation.”

 

 

Mormon Woman Places Second in Boston Marathon

[image error]A Mormon woman came in second place in the Boston marathon. It was only the second time she’d ever run a marathon.  My husband and I used her and this accomplishment as an example in Family Home Evening- how it is great to pursue things we love, that first place isn’t always the best, that good men sit on the sidelines and cheer our accomplishments, and the process and humility after such an accomplishment are key to true success. Plus, women are awesome.

 

 

“Ministering” resources for #LDS members

The LDS church has set up a website to help members learn about the new ministering program.  Find it here:

Ministering with Strengthened Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums and Relief Societies

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Also, check out our intro Relief Society lesson about ministering–more to come!

Imagine

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Recently I read a fascinating article by Rosemary Hill. https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n07/rosemary-hill/what-does-she-think-she-looks-like. It is about women, fashion, clothing, and uses a phrase, “frock consciousness”, which is deserving of its own discussion. It is well worth reading. A couple of sentences keep running through my mind. “Women have always had to be amphibious. No society has been designed for their comfort or convenience and as they move between the elements, the spheres of private and public, personal and professional, they must constantly adapt, assume disguise or camouflage.” We can add the sphere of church or religion to that list.

Has there ever been a sphere designed for the comfort and convenience of women? It is only recently that the comfort and convenience of women was ever considered in any element of society. It seems to me that advancement in gender equality has usually, at least initially, been grudging tolerance of women, as long as they act more like men. Adapting, assuming disguises and camouflage has been the way into previously male only spheres. Being amphibious is tricky for humans.

In our religious practices, with our very gendered roles, it seems that our female spaces, Young Women and Relief Society, should be designed for our comfort and convenience. Has that been your experience?

If we really, really believe that all are invited unto Christ, to partake of his goodness, we should strive to design our religious practices to be convenient and comfortable for all. What has been your lived experience? Is there any sphere in your life that has been designed for the comfort and convenience of women? Can you even imagine what that would be like?

Mourning and Remembering

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Last General Conference Sunday, my mom got a call from her cousin, about her own mother, my grandmother warrior, Zena. Her body that carried her to both water aerobics and water coloring classes into her 90s was starting to shut down, and that shutting down was happening quickly. Hospice would step in.

…

After the phone call, I walked around my apartment and city for weeks and thought, “My grandma is dying.”

I am doing the dishes, and my grandma is dying. I am nursing my son, and my grandma is dying. (He has her eyes.) I am reading Dear Girl to my daughter, and my grandma is dying. I am tucking them in, or doing morning preschool dropoff, or afternoon preschool pickup, and my grandma is dying. I am telling my daughter for the umpteenth time, “My grandma is dying and I am really sad. It’s Nana’s mom. She’s sad too,” to which she responds, “I didn’t know that,” and I tell her, “You did. I told you.”

…

I am taking a bus into the city by myself for a concert I’ve been looking forward to for months, and my grandma is dying. I am wearing her coat in New York, that she gave me when I lived in her house right after I started my PhD and she is in California, dying.

…

My mother went to be with her. She told me my grandma said my name in her sleep.

…

My mother went back, this time with one of my sisters and her son. They said goodbye to her. It was hard to leave. She told me she thought her mother would live forever. Or at least until November, when she’d turn 100. Don’t we all think this, of the one who made us?

…

I missed a call. It was my dad. I called him back. He struggled to speak. I asked if my grandma died. He said no, but that she was in a coma, and they expected it to be that day, or maybe the next.

I opened facebook and scoured almost every picture I’d ever posted to find pictures of her, then I moved to my siblings, and my cousins, and my mother’s pages. I gathered the pictures in one place as if all of the concentrated focus and remembering could sustain her. As if it could sustain me.

My husband is trying to encourage me to encourage my daughter to pick up her own toys instead of me picking them up for her. I tell him, “This doesn’t matter very much to me right now. My grandma is dying.”

Then right after, I learned that she died, with my cousin by her side, playing Louie Armstrong. He said she went peacefully. He said she knew that she was loved.

…

She was. Loved.

…

I searched for plane tickets and couldn’t stop crying. I posted both of those things on facebook and then cried harder from the kindness that came.

…

I read a poem by Marie Howe, “What the Living Do.” I think of my own version. The living forgets her daughter has “Mixmatched Day” at school, and the next day forgets her daughter’s bookbag. The living misplaces her glasses for four days. She drives to the store for yogurt and diapers. (The living still has to eat, still has a baby-toddler who needs to be changed.) The living reads poems and cries, and children’s books and cries. The living cries. The living looks at the buds, finally flowering on the trees and thinks about the incongruity of death during spring, but how it also carries its own reminder that death isn’t death. The living feels an emptiness she cannot shake, and a brain fuzziness she’s trying to.

The living clings to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s words, “Well behaved women seldom make history,” because Laurel meant that they should, that she wanted them to, and that she would make a new history to do it, piecing together their lives and stories from a journal entry here, a piece of fabric there, and a lock of hair.

…

I, the living one, think about my grandma’s life and stories. She was an extraordinary, ordinary woman.

…

I wrote some of them here once, how she met her husband during World War II when he was home for a break, and she, as a single woman took a train from California to Texas and tipped the conductor to seat her next to the most handsome man, how they later married at a courthouse, and her sister gathered rations of sugar and butter to make her a small cake, how she brought her (and consequently my) family into the gospel when my mom was two, even though my grandpa told her that if she joined the Mormon church, he’d join the Catholic church, and how she had a career in the 50s when my mom didn’t know any other women who worked, and how she was not the cook in her family (that was my grandpa), but there’s more. (Of course there’s more.)

…

I think of her backyard, that as a child felt like paradise and as an adult felt cozy, the lemon tree on the right side, and the gigantic avocado tree in the center, that somehow sprung from the dwarf tree she planted.

I think of her birthplace, Hooker, Pennsylvania, and her birth time, just weeks after the first world war ended.

She lived on a farm until her dad passed away when she was 11. He said goodbye to her, to go on a trip, and got in a car accident on the way. Her mother moved her and her siblings across the country to be near family. She knew loss, and was sensitive to others who knew loss, who grew up without parents.

She lived through the Great Depression and the second world war. Instead of making her hard, it made her generous. She saved everything and gave everything away.

I once found 20+ bags of sugar scattered throughout her kitchen and her pantry. I thought it must be because of what she told me, about her sister, Vera, gathering sugar and butter rations, to make her a wedding cake.

…

She wasn’t soft in the way grandmas are sometimes thought to be soft, and when I was young I thought she liked boys more than girls. (It might have been true.)

…

I don’t think she ever made cookies for anybody, but she did offer me storebought cookies once, on a day when she saw me crying, then later told me she put my name on the prayer roll at the LA temple when I couldn’t tell her what was wrong. I had never loved her more.

Soon after that I got accepted to Claremont and moved into her home. She’d previously opened it to two of my brothers and one of my cousins.

It was a napping place. Every time I walked in the door, she’d say, “You must be so tired. Why don’t you take a nap?” And more often than not, I was.

…

I think of how she taught me to watercolor on a particularly anxious day and how she laughed and laughed at my pink elephant, modeled after one of Ash Mae’s.

…

I think of her love of chocolate, and how she drank two cups of hot cocoa every day and told me that if her doctor ever told her she needed to stop, she’d say, “Doctor, I’m getting a new doctor.”

I think of the day I drove her to her doctor, after coming home from a Nietzsche class and having her ask me how my day was and if I was busy, before telling me she thought she’d had a stroke. She had, a small one.

…

I think of the day I saw her lick a bowl clean of batter after my friend and I made 500 mini cupcakes for an event. She didn’t know that I was watching, and said to herself, “That takes me back,” smiling like the most carefree child.

…

I think of her sayings, how when she was still driving and would get a good parking place, she’d say, “I must be living right,” and how my siblings and I laughed about it, but also now all say it. How at my oldest sister’s wedding, she wore a bright red dress and said, “Well somebody’s got to wear red!” And how in her part of California, ten miles from LA, she would tell me, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change!” How when I lived with her, the thing she said most of all was, “Just keep smiling.”

September Young Women Lesson: Why do we pay tithing?

Introduce the doctrine

Write on the board, “Why do you pay tithing?” Invite the young women to imagine that a friend of another faith asks them this question. How would they respond?

Learn Together

Invite the class to work together to write a list of reasons people pay tithing. Let the young women guide the discussion. As young women provide their answers, share quotes below that reinforce their statements. If they run out of ideas, you might share a quote as a prompt.  In addition to the reasons listed below, the youth may have other ideas.  That is fine.  There are many reasons people may choose to pay tithing beyond those listed here.

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Church facilities, and their ongoing utility costs, are paid for with tithing.Write on the board, “Why do you pay tithing?” 

Why do we pay tithing?
As a Duty to God

The law is simply stated as ‘one-tenth of all their interest.’ Interest means profit, compensation, increase. It is the wage of one employed, the profit from the operation of a business, the increase of one who grows or produces, or the income to a person from any other source. -President Howard W. Hunter

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. -Malachi 3:8-10

Consider, for example, ten apples. Now, all ten of these apples actually belong to the Lord, but He asks us to return to Him only one-tenth, or one apple. -Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi

As a Spiritual Practice

Perhaps our most pivotal moments as Latter-day Saints come when we have to swim directly against the current of the culture in which we live. Tithing provides just such a moment. Living in a world that emphasizes material acquisition and cultivates distrust for anyone or anything that has designs on our money, we shed that self-absorption to give freely, trustingly, and generously. By this act, we say—indeed—we are different, that we are God’s peculiar people. In a society that tells us money is our most important asset, we declare emphatically it is not. -Anonymous Church Member, as quoted by Jeffrey R. Holland

We should pay them as a personal expression of love to a generous and merciful Father in Heaven.-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Sometimes we think that because our circumstances are difficult, it is not practical to keep all the Lord’s commandments. There are those, for instance, who feel they cannot afford to pay tithing. But as we obey the commandments, we have the evidence of blessings, feelings of accomplishment, and inner peace. -Sister Barbara W. Winder

To Qualify for a Temple Recommend

In order to enter the temple, you must be a full-tithe payer. -For the Strength of Youth

To Contribute Our Fair Share toward Resources We Use

The rising generation…could now, if we are not careful, grow up in the Church with absolutely no understanding as to how their temples, chapels, seminaries, and socials are provided. Teach your children that many of the blessings of the Church are available to them because you and they give tithes and offerings to the Church. Teach them that those blessings could come virtually no other way. …The buildings, programs, and materials I have mentioned do have an attached cost. That is not an unimportant lesson for our children to learn in their youth. -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

To Support Church Efforts

In keeping with the biblical practice of tithes, Latter-day Saints offer one-tenth of their income to the Church. These funds are used for:

Providing buildings or places of worship for members around the world. We have thousands of such buildings and continue to open more, sometimes several in a week.
Providing education programs, including support for our universities and our seminary and institute programs.
Supporting the Church’s worldwide missionary program.
Building and operating more than 140 temples around the world and the administration of the world’s largest family history program.
Supporting the Church’s welfare programs and humanitarian aid, which serve people around the world — both members of the Church as well as those who are not members. -Humanitarian Aid and Welfare Services Basics: How Donations and Resources Are Used, Mormon Newsroom

How to Pay Tithing
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Friend Magazine, September 2017

When teaching youth, we sometimes forget to provide practical instruction about how to accomplish tasks that have become second nature to us in our adulthood.  Consider this story that Artel Ricks told about his first attempt at paying tithing as a child.  (It was later retold by President Gordon B. Hinckley at General Conference.):

I … went to the only room in the house with a lock on the door—the bathroom—and there knelt by the bathtub. Holding the three or four coins in my upturned hands, I asked the Lord to accept them. [I was certain He would appear and take them from me.] I pleaded with the Lord for some time, but [nothing happened. Why would He not accept my tithing?]. As I rose from my knees, I felt so unworthy that I could not tell anyone what had happened. …

A few days later at Primary, the teacher said she felt impressed to talk about something that was not in the lesson. I sat amazed as she then taught us how to pay tithing [to the bishop, the Lord’s servant]. But what I learned was far more important than how to pay tithing. I learned that the Lord had heard and answered my prayer, that He loved me, and that I was important to Him. -Artel Ricks

While young women are older than the child in this story, not knowing the procedures for paying tithing could still be a barrier for them.  Take some time to explain.

Using tithing slips

Get a tithing slip and envelope from your ward (usually kept outside the Bishop’s or Branch president’s  office–tell the youth where to find them in your local meetinghouse).
Fill out the slip and keep the yellow carbon copy as your receipt.
Place the cash or check and completed tithing slip in the provided envelope.
Return the envelope in one of the following ways:


Hand the envelope to the Bishop/Branch President or the first or second counselor in the bishopric during Sunday church meetings.
Pay for postage and mail the envelope to the bishop (his address is printed on the envelope).
Give it to the Aaronic priesthood holders (including a fast offering alongside your  tithing) when they come to your door to collect fast offerings on the first Sunday of the month (if they do this if your local area).

Online

Here is an excellent tutorial (with screenshots) about how to pay tithing online:

How Do I Pay My LDS Tithing Online?

Tithing In Kind

While it is unlikely that youth will use this method, the church does accept in-kind donations of financial assets such as real estate and stocks. If any of the youth have questions about this method of paying tithing, more information is available here:

Donations In Kind

What comes next?

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Things I miss about going to church every week:

Developing deep relationships with people from many different walks of life
Singing the sacrament hymn, focusing on the love of Christ together with a group of people
Having an easy outlet for my expertise at working with children
Watching people change from toddlers to children to teenagers to adults, and going on to have their own families. Even though I moved a lot as a kid, that feeling of change vs. continuation over time (and generations) was pretty strong at church
Being presented with issues and principles to think deeply about, with the goal of becoming a better person – especially when the talks and lessons made it clear that there was more than one right way to be, and discussed the tension between two good principles
The times that unity and diversity were valued together, that felt so affirming and filled me with love and belonging
The clear sense of purpose about my life’s path*
Regularly hearing the deep truths about other people’s spiritual journeys
Being promoted every week to dig deeply into beautiful sacred texts
The constant reminders that the divine interacts with us, but often in very human, imperfect ways
Giving talks and planning lessons, listening to the spirit as I spoke, and hearing that what I prepared meant something to someone else

Things I don’t miss about going to church every week:

Fighting with myself every week about how I justify supporting a church that excludes innocent children from full participation
The talks and lessons about modesty, obedience above conscience, and how evil the world is
Worship of The Family more often than Jesus, and without caring about or supporting actual people that make up actual families
The recycled lessons and by-the-book comments
Being frustrated about the disconnect between my leadership skills and the opportunities I was offered
Having an implied need for permission about extending my spirituality or connection to God outside the bounds set by the church’s rules
So much cognitive dissonance

What I’m looking for now:

I guess it’s pretty clear that what I need is a spiritual community of some kind, but I also miss having mentors. Not because of the hierarchy – I never wanted to have someone else be in charge of my spirituality – but because they had been in a similar place to me, and come through it. Their suggestions were helpful, but the fact that they were living proof that someone survived what I was struggling through was invaluable.

I need to be responsible myself for regularly reading scripture and sacred texts, which is probably going to take some time and trial and error to figure out. I didn’t like that it felt so quick, moving through one book of scripture each year, but it did tie the lessons together, and I don’t feel as drawn to something spontaneous and disjointed. Maybe I need to come to peace with the idea of following my impulses, or maybe I need to find or create a structured curriculum.

I know that I am the one who’s ultimately responsible for my journey, but I don’t want to make it alone.

For those of you who are here, or who have been here, what’s helped you build a connection with God? How or where have you found the reciprocity, unity and diversity of a good ward? Where do you turn (besides The Exponent, of course) when lessons at Church feel rote?

*which I understood to be “become as much like God as possible”, rather than “get married and have several babies”, and still want to do, I’m just not as sure anymore what that God looks like, and how I should practice

Stopping Sexual Abuse by Ecclesiastical Leaders with Mary Dispenza and Judy Larson

In this episode of the Religious Feminism interview series, Mary Dispenza and Judy Larson, two leaders of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the activist organization made famous by the Academy Award-winning movie, Spotlight, discuss best practices to stop sexual abuse by ecclesiastical leaders and support sexual assault survivors. You can find episode notes for the Religious Feminism Podcast here at the Exponent website: http://www.the-exponent.com/tag/religious-feminism-podcast/

Links to Connect and Learn More:

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

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Judy Larson

2018  SNAP Conference in Chicago

SNAP News Story of the Day

Spotlight

SNAP Network  on Facebook

SNAP Network on Twitter

Talk to a Survivor

Mary Dispenza’s website

Split: A Child, a Priest, and the Catholic Church  by Mary Dispenza

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Mary Dispenza

Additional Resources Discussed in the Podcast:

#MormonMeToo series at the Exponent

Protect LDS Children

BishopAccountability.org

Our Stories Untold

Listen and subscribe for free below:

Lesson Plan: What Does It Mean to Minister?

At April 2018 General Conference, church leaders announced a new effort called “ministering” that would replace the home teaching/visiting teaching program. Details about the new program are available at www.lds.org/mycalling/ministering.

This video shares highlights from this announcement and includes illustrations of church members engaged in a variety of activities which might be considered  “ministering.”

Note: In many church buildings, you must download videos to your device beforehand; you cannot play videos directly from the Internet.  You can download this video here. Choose the “full video” version for the complete 4 1/2 minute video. https://www.lds.org/mycalling/ministering/a-vision-of-ministering?lang=eng

After watching the video, discuss:

How do you feel about the announcement of the ministering program?
What do you like about it ?
What are your misgivings?
What will we need to do to make this new effort work in our local ward or branch?

Some class members may have concerns about the new program.  That is okay.  Talking through concerns is an important part of adjusting to change and should not be discouraged.

While the ministering program is just beginning to be rolled out churchwide, the Relief Society General Presidency has already moved toward the ministry model since January 2018, when they discontinued formal visiting teaching lessons. At that time, they explained:

“We want to help sisters understand how to really care for and strengthen each sister. The handbook doesn’t talk about our responsibilities to teach a lesson. It talks about how ‘visiting teachers sincerely come to know and love each sister, help her strengthen her faith and give service. They seek personal inspiration to know how to respond to the spiritual and temporal needs of each sister they are assigned to visit.'” –Sister Jean B. Bingham, General Relief Society President

“What are we supposed to do? Do what she needs.” –Sister Sharon Eubank, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency

Discuss:

How are your efforts at ministry going so far?  What is working for you?  What are you struggling with?
How do we know what others need?  What do we need to do to understand their needs?
How can we come to sincerely know and love people we are assigned to minister?

While this particular ministering program is new, we have all been called to ministry ever since we became members of the church.  Consider how Alma described the baptismal covenant:

…and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you? Mosiah 18:8-9

What does is mean to bear one another’s burdens?
To mourn with those who mourn?
To comfort those who stand in need of comfort?
To stand as a witness of God?

As Mormons, using the word “minister” is new to us, but within other faiths, people have been accepting the call to ministry and considering what it means to them for a long time.  What can our friends of other faiths teach us about ministering?

“I sat in one of those ‘pastoral identity’ lectures. As I listened to the professor talk about a pastor’s call to guide, protect, nurture, and grow God’s people, the woman next to me nudged me with her arm, ‘Sounds a lot like being a mother,’ she smirked. I smiled back at her, absorbing this information.” –Kate Wallace Nunneley, Evangelical Associate Pastor

(Check out our interview with Pastor Nunneley here.)

“Youth ministry is about making real the teachings of Jesus. It requires that I consistently strive to be in touch with the Divine so that through our ministries, youth might get a glimpse of what it would be like to walk and talk and eat pizza with Jesus. Youth ministry allows us to walk with our youth through the most important developmental phase of their life. It takes us on mission trips and retreats, to birthday parties, and graduations. But it also takes us to cancer wards, juvenile detention centers, funerals, and social services agencies. And it takes us to the feet of Jesus and the throne of God. This is what youth ministry is to me. It is about creating sanctuary—safe places for our youth to come and rest from the pressures of school, the stress of family, the confusion of adolescence, and to be exactly who they are: amazing creations of God.” –Lara Crutsinger-Perry, Minister to Youth and Families, United Church of Christ

The words “minister” and “servant” are used interchangeably in scripture. (See this article, Ministry Means Service, for more information about the greek origins of the word “minister.”)

Christ gave some beautiful examples of ways we could minister to others when he told this story to his disciples:

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. -Matthew 25:34-40

In our modern world, the means by which we may minister have expanded.

“In addition to whatever schedule you establish for actual visits, that calendar can be supplemented with telephone calls, written notes, texts, emails, video chats, conversations at Church meetings, shared service projects, social activities, and a host of possibilities in the world of social media.” -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

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Not every act of ministering needs to be a grand gesture.

“Sometimes we think we have to do something grand and heroic to ‘count’ as serving our neighbors. Yet simple acts of service can have profound effects on others—as well as on ourselves. What did the Savior do? Through His supernal gifts of the Atonement and Resurrection—which we celebrate on this beautiful Easter Sunday—’none other has had so profound an influence [on] all who have lived and who will yet live upon the earth.’ But He also smiled at, talked with, walked with, listened to, made time for, encouraged, taught, fed, and forgave.” –Sister Jean B. Bingham, General Relief Society President

What are some ways others have ministered to you or those around you?
How can our ministering help meet people’s spiritual and temporal needs?
How can it help people come closer to Christ?